Flags fly in windows and seagulls decorate buildings all over south coast resort to celebrate club’s promotion to Premier League after 34 years

Dot Purvis remembers the last time Brighton and Hove Albion played in the top flight of football, 34 years ago. To celebrate, the football-mad octogenarian had her whole house painted in the club’s signature blue. But while her collection of seagulls and club paraphernalia in the front garden grew in the intervening years, the paint became faded.

Now it stands resplendent on Ryde Road once again, the sun’s rays reflecting off the stained-glass club badge proudly in the centre of her front door, a blue and white flag floating from an upstairs window. “I thought, I’ve supported them my whole life, and if I got out all my scarves and flags it might help them being up there,” she says mischievously.